Pamela Wallin regrets paying back some of the travel claims auditors flagged as problematic

OTTAWA — If she had it to do all over again, suspended Senator Pamela Wallin wouldn’t have repaid every dollar of her questionable travel claims.

In a radio interview Thursday, Ms. Wallin said she was advised not to repay the full amount auditors had flagged as problematic, and instead was urged to pay a smaller sum of about $40,000 that should have been billed to third parties, including companies where she served on a board of directors.

She ignored that advice and repaid the full amount.

“I regret I did it,” said Ms. Wallin, who was co-hosting a three-hour talk show on Toronto’s Newstalk 1010 radio Thursday.

She repaid about $150,000 to the Senate after a scathing review of her travel expenses. Outside auditors had found that numerous travel claims were for personal business, not related to her Senate duties. But the Conservative senator said the full sum was made up of “charges that were rung up because of retroactively imposed new rules.

“And not that I don’t believe the intention was right, I just think that it’s given some people an excuse to say, ‘Oh, well, you must be guilty because you paid it back,’ ” she said. “I felt at the time it was the right thing for me to do because I thought it would help.”

It is the first time that Ms. Wallin has spoken publicly about the scandal about her travel expenses since the Senate voted in November 2013 to suspend her and two other senators — Patrick Brazeau and Mike Duffy — without pay. Ms. Wallin has long maintained she didn’t deliberately mislead the Senate over her billings. She repeated that on the radio, saying she made honest mistakes.

In principle, the three senators are eligible to return to the Senate as early as 2015, but there’s no guarantee that they will be welcomed back. The Senate could decide to reinstitute their suspensions, or could expel them altogether.

The RCMP outlined allegations of fraud and breach of trust against Ms. Wallin in court documents filed in the fall. Ms. Wallin said she hasn’t been in touch with the RCMP, calling such contact inappropriate. She faces no charges and the allegations have not been tested in court.